Monday, June 8, 2009

LANDING ON OMAHA BEACH

Compare this U.S. Coast Guard photo of soldiers disembarking from a Landing Craft on the morning of June 6, 1944 with the more recent Omaha Beach photo in color. Through the smoke and battle haze you can see hillside as a reference point. There were films of the D-Day landing. One of the most effective depictions of this historic event is the opening sequence of Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan.

Another very dramatic recreation of the landing can be seen at the Cantigny War Museum in Illinois. You, the viewer, are seated in a landing craft similar to the WWII version. The front of the craft is a rear-projection screen that shows newsreel footage of the landing. When the war footage ends, the front of the landing craft lifts and you walk out onto a life-sized section of Omaha Beach with appropriate battle sounds, smoke, wreckage and bodies. 

No comments:

Post a Comment